THe AMERICAN BoaRD | 


* 


IN 


INDIA AND CEYLON. 


BY 


Rey. JOHN S. CHANDLER 
: ——— 
OF MADURA. 


PUBLISHED BY THE BOARD: 
 ConGREGATIONAL Houskr, Boston. 
1897. 


‘TABLE OF GONTENTS. 


Ane ~~ See 


- 


CHAPTER I.— PREPARATORY Work. 


Hippalus. —'Greek Merchants. — First: Missionary. fe Syrian i ‘ 
Churches. — Cosmas. — Inscriptions. — Stagnation. — Roman 
Catholics. — King of Denmark.— Ziegenbalg.—Schwartz... 1 


CHAPTER II.— THE AMERICAN BOARD. — WORK BEGUN, — 
“The Brethren.’ — Andover.— Ordination and Departure.— 
Burmah.— Calcutta. — The East India Companies: 0 Tsle\ofs 0 Sees 

France. — Escape. — Bombay. — Harriet Newell.— Separation  —_— 
of Judson and Rice. — Jaffna. — War. — Cochin. — Confinement. 
— Permission (260) 2 Gia se coriemistie 20) sitalP nile <7) si'ejieiipiieitd Miele tbs 


CHAPTER II.—THE MARatTHI MIssIon. 


td s 

Bombay.— Marathas. — Additions. — The Press. — New Sta- _ 
tions. — First Convert. — Cholera. — Baptisms. — Beginnings. — 
Legacy. — Extension. — Growth. — Music. — Churches. — Pas © 
tors. — Periodicals. — Translation. — The Deputution. -— Sta- 
tions.— Development of Church Organization. — Seminary. — 
Schools.— Bible-Women.— Numbers. — Population. — Area. — 
Famine. -— Plague. — Faith 9 eee 0 ee ea) eee oe 6 ewe 


CHAPTER IV.— THE CEYLON MISSION. 


New Mission. — Tamils. — Portuguese and Dutch — British. — 
Reinforcements. — Prohibition.— Schools.— Girls. — Oodooville. 
— Jubilee. — Spaulding and Agnew Fund.— Revivals. — New 
Mission. — Disaster. — Evil Conduct. — College. — Training 
School. — First Church.— First Pastor. — Edifices. — ‘‘ Morning | 
Star.’? — Student Work.— Education. — Other Missions. —Num- 
bers. — The Piel 2 0). wa ses eat clile yes Oilie an eee sys sos etka eee aes is 


CHAPTER V.—THE Mapura Mission. 


Pandyan Kingdom. — Tamil. — Census. — Castes. — Popula- 
tion. — Madura City. — District. — Permission. — Helpers. — 
' Lord’s Supper. — Request.— Desertion — Daniel Poor.— First- 
Churches. — Aid. — Reinforcement. — Fruits.—'lrial.—Caste.— ~« 
Deputation.— Work for Women. — Famine. — O; phans. — Rec- 
dgnition. — Medical Work. —Seminary.— Departments. — Num- 
Der ee — Jubilees. — Offering. — Evangelistic Effort.— Endow- — 
MOEN bie: 5% Solids f aeepkte telly aie We te De 7h eter anny et a Perinat Mala e ere 


CHAPTER VI.— OTHER MISSIONS. 


Madras Mission.—Circulation of the Scriptures. — Press. "ig 
— Discontinuance. — Arcot. — The Scudders. — Growth and 
INU DOTS i oyna ee a Bape SF dhad ait Ea) tok Sidllat elena (a Pennaen Guat earn 


CHAPTER VIL. — Present Conprrions. 


__ Panchamas. — Official Declaration. — Reaction. — Political 
Movement. — Exaggerations.— Power of Christianity. — Pres- — 
ent Forces’. ie) tel vh.c) io, (eal y laleelts hele last ou vite: cenit aie M en ante 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2023 with funding from 
Columbia University Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/americanboardini0OOchan 


i 


ve 


The American Board in India and Ceylon. 


CHAPTER I. 


PREPARATORY WORK. 


In the year 47 a.p. the pilot Hippalus discovered 
that the monsoons of the Indian Ocean blow from the 
southwest about half the year, and from the northeast 
the other half; so that vessels from the Red Sea could 
visit India by the former, and return by the latter mon- 
soon. This gave rise to a sea-borne trade between 
Egypt and South India, in which Greek merchants, 
probably Jews, went to India for spices and gems, and 
so was carried there the ‘‘ pearl of great price.” 

About 180 a.p. an appeal came to the Bishop of 
Alexandria to send a Christian teacher to India. 
There was a school for catechists in Alexandria, 
founded, as there is reason to believe, by the Evangel- 
ist Mark; and Pantzenus, the head of that Christian 
College, was sent as the first missionary to India. 
His route must have been up the Nile to the border of 
Nubia, thence to Berenice on the Red Sea, whence the 
Egyptian fleets sailed on their eastward voyage. Pan- 
tzenus found among the Indian Christians a Hebrew 
Gospel of Matthew. 

In the third century Theophilus Indicus visited India 
and found Christianity established in some districts. 

As one sails along the western coast of South India 
he sees, at intervals of several miles, white spots on 


2 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


the strip of sand beneath the fringe of cocoa palms, 
and learns that they are churches belonging to the 
Syrian Christians. At the beginning of the sixth cen- 
tury Nestorian missionaries from Persia and Syria 
reached India, established this community, giving a 
liturgy in the Syriac language, whence their name. 
The community was probably composed of both col- 
onists and converts. 

In 547 a.p. Cosmas, an Alexandrian merchant, made 
the following statement of what he had seen in South 
India and Ceylon: ‘* Even in the Island of Tapro- 
bane [Ceylon] in Farther India, where the Indian Sea 
is, there is a church of Christians with clergy and a 
congregation of believers, though I know not if there 
be any Christians farther on in that direction; and 
such is also the case in the land called Malé (Malabar), 
where the pepper grows. And in the place called Kal- 
liana there is a bishop appointed from Persia.” 

The oldest Christian inscriptions found in India are 
in their Syrian churches at Kottayam and Madras. 
That in Kottayam reads, ‘‘ Let me not glory except in 
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the true 
Messiah, and God alone, and Holy Ghost:” These 
inscriptions date from the seventh or eighth century. 

The Musalman conquests in the seventh century 
shut off this community from further access to other 
Christians for at least five centuries, and their re- 
ligion sank into a condition of utter stagnation. It 
has, however, maintained itself to the present day, and 
under the influence of Protestant missions has been 
stirred up to seek more spiritual life. 

The travels of Marco Polo in the twelfth century 
and Vasco de Gamo in the fifteenth,arcused an interest 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. 3 


in India among the Roman Catholics of Europe. In 
the thirteenth century one John of Monte Corvino 
spent some time in South India on his way to China. 
Jordanus went twice to India, and the second time 
(1330) was sent as Bishop of Quilon in Travancore. 
In the next century came Michael Vaz and his work 
among the fishermen. Francis Xavier reached Goa in 
1541, and with great zeal and energy in three years 
baptized a multitude from the lower castes. This 
work was superficial but widespread. In the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries three renowned schol- 
ars, de Nobili, de Britto, and Beschi, with a complete 
mastery of the Sanskrit and Tamil languages, under- 
took to win over the Brahmans and other high castes 
by claiming to be white Brahmans from Rome, and 
by producing a fifth Veda, a book composed by them- 
selves conveying Christian teaching under the guise of 
Vedic phrases and idioms. ‘They were finally rejected 
by the Brahmans, and de Britto suffered martyrdom. 
In the beginning of the nineteenth century the Abbé 
Dubois studied the results of these Roman Catholic 
missions, and gave it as his deliberate opinion that it 
was impossible to convert a Hindu. 

At the beginning of the eighteenth century Dr. 
Ltitkens, pastor of Frederic IV, King of Denmark, 
wished to become a missionary to India, but the king 
said he was too old, and sent Bartholomew Ziegenbalg 
and Henry Pliitschau. They landed in Tranquebar, 
July 19, 1706, and commenced the work of Protestant 
missions. Their first converts were five slaves belong- 
ing to Danes in Tranquebar. The first copies of their 
translation of the Bible had to be scratched with a 
style on palm leaves. 


4. HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


A succession of missionaries under the Danish mis- 
sion, of whom Schwartz was the greatest, carried on 
the Protestant missionary work of the eighteenth 
century, and even when Carey came in 1792, he had 
to come in a Danish ship, and, with his companions, 
Marshman and Ward, carry on his great work in the 
Danish settlement of Serampore. 

This, then, was the condition of affairs when the 
American Board appeared on the scene, and these 
were the main features of the preparation which God 
had been making through all the centuries of our era. 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. 5 


CHAPTER II. 
THE AMERICAN BOARD. — WORK BEGUN. 


In 1808 Samuel J. Mills, Gordon Hall, James Rich- 
ards, and others in Williams College formed the society 
of ‘* The Brethren,” to effect a mission to the heathen. 
In 1810 Adoniram Judson, Samuel Nott, S. J. Mills, 
and Samuel Newell, of Andover Seminary, sent a 
memorial to the General Association of Massachusetts 
asking to be sent as missionaries. February 6, 1812, 
Hall, Judson, Newell, Nott, and Luther Rice were 
ordained in the Tabernacle Church in Salem. On the 
nineteenth of that same month Judson and Newell, 
with their wives, sailed from Salem for Calcutta in 
the Caravan; and on the twenty-eighth Messrs. Hall, 
Rice, and Mr. and Mrs. Nott sailed from Philadelphia 
in the Harmony. The idea of the Prudential Com- 
mittee was that they should work, not in India, but 
in Burmah, as beyond ‘‘ the proper province of the 
British Missionary Society”; but Burmah could be 
reached only through Calcutta. 

The first company reached Calcutta, June 17, 1812, 
and was cordially welcomed by Carey and others. 
Then followed a succession of trials by which the 
Lord broke up their plans and scattered them in dif- 
ferent directions. 

The East India Company was opposed to having 
any missionaries in its territory, and informed Judson 
and Newell that they must return on the Caravan, and 
that the vessel would not be allowed to sail without 
them. In the mean time letters had come from their 


6 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


brethren in the Harmony, dated at the Isle of France 
(Mauritius), stating that the governor of that island 
favored having missionaries there and on the neigh- 
boring island of Madagascar. By considerable effort 
the Company’s order was modified so that they were 
allowed to go anywhere outside of the Company’s 
jurisdiction. The way to Burmah seemed closed, so 
on the fourth of August Mr. and Mrs. Newell em- 
barked for the Isle of France. 

August 8, four-days after the departure of Mr. and 
Mrs. Newell, the Harmony, with its company of four, 
arrived at Calcutta, and they were ordered away as the 
others had been. Owing to a delay in their departure 
until November, the Company’s oflicers decided to ship 
them back to England, and they fled. At midnight 
Mr. and Mrs. Judson and Mr. Rice went on board a 
vessel bound for the Isle of France, and succeeded in 
getting away in her. Mr. Hall and Mr. and Mrs. 
Nott secured a passport to leave for Bombay in the 
Commerce, and then were peremptorily ordered to 
sail in one of the Company’s ships to England. With 
the connivance of the police they departed in the 
Commerce for Bombay, where they arrived in Feb- 
ruary, 1813. 

Meantime Mr. and Mrs. Newell had been through 
a most distressing experience in the Bay of Bengal. 
The vessel sprung aleak and they had to put in to 
Coringa, on the Coromandel Coast. Again they started 
and were beaten about by storms, and reached their 
destination only to find Mrs. Newell dying of quick 
consumption. Harriet Newell died on the Isle of 
France, November 80, 1812, and her serene and un- 
clouded faith furnished a wonderful testimony to 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. T 


the power of God’s grace. Hers was the first death 
among the Board’s missionaries, and ‘‘ the tale of her 
youthful consecration, and her faith and purpose, un- 
faltering in death, thrilled through the land.” 

When Mr. and Mrs. Judson and Mr. Rice reached 
the Isle of France they found only the bereaved 
Newell, and from him they soon felt obliged to sepa- 
rate on doctrinal grounds, as they embraced the views 
of the Baptist denomination. Rice returned to the 
United States to enlist the Baptist churches in foreign 
missions, while Mr. and Mrs. Judson were led through 
many difficulties to Madras and Rangoon, and thence 
to Burmah, where the Lord used them for the 
establishment of his wonderful work among the 
Karens. 

Mr. Newell, supposing that Hall and Nott had been 
sent back, wandered to Ceylon, and determined to 
labor there alone. This was a British Crown Colony, 
not under the East India Company, and he found the 
governor and all influential men at the seat of govern- 
ment favorable to a mission. Learning that the other 
missionaries were still in Bombay, he wrote to them to 
come to Ceylon, and recommended to the Prudential 
Committee the establishment of a mission in Jaffna, 
which is the northern peninsula of the island, and 
is inhabited by a colony of Tamils from the con- 
tinent. 

In the mean time war had been declared between the 
United States and Great Britain, and Hall and Nott 
were exposed to very trying treatment in Bombay. 
They asked permission to go to Ceylon, but were 
refused and ordered to England. Leaving Mrs. Nott 
and her child in Bombay, they departed secretly for 


8 HISTORICAL SKETOH. 


Colombo, as they supposed. The vessel took them to 
Cochin, where they visited the Syrian Christians. 
They then found themselves ordered back to Bombay. 
After much correspondence and many annoyances, 
including a ten days’ confinement in their vessel in 
Bombay harbor, on December 21, 1813, they received 
official notice that the measures for removing them 
would not be pressed; and the first mission of the 
Board, the Marathi Mission, then came into existence 
at Bombay. 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. 9 


CHAPTER III. 
THE MARATHI MISSION. 


Tus, the first Protestant mission in Bombay, started 
with three members; Gordon Hall and Mr. and Mrs. 
Nott. Newell joined them in March, 1814. 

In 1661 Bombay had been given to King Charles IT, 
as a part of his dowry on marrying Catherine of Ara- 
gon. It contained only 10,000 inhabitants and was 
turned over to the East India Company for an annual 
payment of ten pounds sterling. It rapidly increased 
in population, and by 1674 had 60,000 inhabitants. 
Our missionaries found it a city of 161,500 souls, and 
containing a great conglomeration of peoples and races 
and languages. In this confusion they elected to work 
among the large number of Hindu castes, speaking the 
Marathi language and living in all parts of the Bom- 
bay Presidency. 

In 1815 Mr. and Mrs. Nott returned to America; 
but the next year the number of missionaries was 
increased to five, by the marriage of Mr. Hall to an 
English lady, and the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Bard- 
well. By this time the older members were able to 
preach in Marathi, and had commenced the translation 
of the Bible into that language. They had also started 
a printing press and had begun to issue Christian 
books, and had established schools, with three hundred 
pupils, one being especially for Jews. In 1818 their 
number was doubled by the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. 
Nichols, Mr. and Mrs. Graves, and Miss Thurston, the 
latter aflianced to Mr. Newell. Two new stations were 


10 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


immediately opened, Mr. and Mrs. Graves being placed 
at Mahim, six miles to the north, and Mr. and Mrs. 
Nichols at Tanna, the chief town of Salsette, an adja- 
cent island. 

The first converts gathered by the missionaries of 
the Board came from the Cherokee Indians in the 
United States in 1817; but the first in India was 
Kader Yar Khan, a Musalman from Hyderabad. He 
was awakened by reading a tract, was baptized in 
Bombay, September 25, 1819, and afterward returned 
to his native place as a Christian worker. 

In 1821 cholera raged in the region of Bombay, and 
Mr. Newell, while visiting its victims, contracted the 
disease and died. His fellow-pioneer, Gordon Hall, 
died of the same disease in 1826; and these were the 
first of a long line of India missionaries of the Ameri- 
can Board who have been carried to the grave by that 
dread disease. 

In 1823 another prominent conversion occurred. 
This time it was Babajee, a Brahman teacher in one 
of the schools of the mission. In 1830 a Dane and an 
American united with the church. The latter was 
born in Massachusetts, converted in the Sandwich 
Islands, and baptized in India. 

The year 1831 marks the beginning of a new epoch 
in the mission. Before that time five of the ten men 
that had been sent out to the mission had died; and 
scarcely more converts had been received. But a 
grand beginning had been made. The New Testament 
and portions of the Old had been translated and 
printed, elementary schoolbooks published, a house 
of worship erected in Bombay, and many itineracies 
made into the interior. Mr. Hall, before his death, had 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. fa} 


declared that the facilities for making men acquainted 
with the gospel had multiplied tenfold. In that year 
a British resident of Bombay left a legacy of $3,500 
for the support of public worship in connection with 
this mission; a legacy which was used twenty-four 
years afterwards for the building of a larger house of 
worship. But, best of all, three missionaries and their 
wives came to reinforce the mission, the beginning of 
a larger reinforcement of nine more couples and two 
single ladies to follow during the next eight years. 
These included the names of Abbott, Ballantine, and 
Hume, which continued in the mission in the next gen- 
eration. This reinforcement made possible the exten- 
sion of the mission’s field into the interior through the 
occupation of Ahmednagar by three of the mission- 
aries, with Babajee as their helper. Naturally, then, 
this year marks the beginning of a larger growth. 
Three persons each year, on an average, were received 
to church fellowship for five years from 1831, but 
that average has been growing until from 1891-1895 it 
amounted to more than 150 for each year, and in 1896 
it was 153. The growth in all its departments has 
been equally marked, and has made this mission the 
most prosperous of all those in the Bombay Presidency. 
Native music plays such a large part in the worship 
of India that our missionaries could not but bring it into 
the service of Christ, and it was as early as 1833 that 
the use of native Christian lyrics, sung to native tunes, 
came into use in Bombay. These developed into Kirt- 
tans, or services of preaching in song composed by 
Christian poets, and sung by trained bands with great 
acceptance in all parts of the field. Direct conversions 
have been the fruit of some of these song services. 


12 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


Church organization commenced in 1827 with the 
formation of the Bombay church. In 1833 the 
second church was formed in Ahmednagar; but not 
until the mission was forty-two years of age was there 
any further development in this direction. The mass 
of converts came from the low caste of Mahars, 
though other castes were well represented; and nota- 
ble converts from the Brahman and Musalman com- 
munities were added from time to time, some of whom 
became able and faithful pastors. Such were Ram- 
krishnapunt, Haripunt, Vishnu Karmarkar, and the 
brother of Sheik Daood, a Musalman convert. 

The mission press was pouring forth its pages of 
Christian truth in unstinted abundance and with pecu- 
niary profit. In addition to its other work, a weekly 
paper, The Dnyanodaya, printed mostly in the ver- 
nacular, was started in 1842 at Ahmednagar and then 
moved to Bombay. ‘This paper is still issued by the 
mission, and is one of the best exponents of practical 
and spiritual Christianity in the press of India. It is 
often quoted by the English and vernacular papers. A 
monthly magazine for young people, Balbodh Mewa, is 
also issued, and is very attractive and successful. 
Since the sale of the mission press, Mr. Bruce, of 
Satara, has done a large amount of beautiful printing 
on his private press. It was not until the year 1847, 
thirty-four years after the founding of the mission, 
that the translation of the Bible into Marathi was 
completed; but copies of the New Testament and 
certain portions of the Old had been printed and cir- 
culated in large numbers. 

The year 1855 marks another epoch in the mission, 
namely, the development of native churches. The 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. 13 


deputation sent from the United States in 1854 had 
been in a consultation with the missionaries at the 
end of that year, and had suggested ‘*‘ the advisability 
of relinquishing, to a large extent, the education of 
the young, to which they had hitherto devoted much 
time and attention, and of employing themselves in 
direct evangelistic labors.” They also recommended 
the organization of more churches in the villages and 
the ordination of pastors over them. ‘* The mission- 
aries gave heed to this counsel.” ‘+ They closed their 
principal schools and organized a number of separate 
churches.” The sale of the printing press also took 
place at this time. 

Sirur had been occupied by a missionary as a station 
in 1846, and Satara in 1848. Wadale was entered in 
1857, Rahuri in 1860, and Sholapur in 1861. With 
the occupation of these new stations the way was 
opened for the development of new churches, with 
their own pastors. ‘The first pastors appointed in this 
mission were ordained in Ahmednagar, at the end of 
1854, by the members of the deputation and the mis- 
sionaries. One was installed over the church already 
existing, and the other over a church organized at that 
time. Four more churches were organized in 1855, 
and within nine years the whole number had increased 
to eighteen. These were scattered about in Sirur, 
Satara, Rahuri, Sholapur, and the surrounding villages. 
Hight years thereafter no new churches appeared, but 
from 1872 they have been organized at the rate of 
nearly one each year. 

With the increase of churches came the necessity of 
increased attention to the training of preachers, a 
necessity that has been met by the Ahmednagar Theo- 


14 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


logical Seminary. And in all departments of educa- 
tion the work has been carried on by the establishment 
of new and successful schools. In addition to the 
village and boarding schools, the Industrial School at 
Sirur, the High Schools in Bombay and Ahmednagar, 
the Girls’ Boarding School and Bible-women’s Train- 
ing School, also in Ahmednagar, are taking a most 
important part in the work of evangelizing the 
multitudes. 

Nor have other departments of woman’s work been 
neglected. Even before the organization of the 
Woman’s Board, which took place in 1868, two Bible- 
women were at work in Ahmednagar, supported by 
a London society ; and one was working north of that 
place, supported by an unknown friend in Bombay. 
The number of these workers had increased to sixty 
in 1895. 

The mission now has forty-two churches with twenty 
native pastors and 2,749 members. Its field covers 
16,973 square miles and has a population of 3,819,000, 
of whom 3,354,000 are Hindus, 307,000 Musalmans, 
and 178,000 Christians. There are only three of the 
forty-five States in the Union, namely, New York, Penn- 
sylvania, and Illinois, that have a greater population 
than that, and only eight that have so small an area. 
Comparing the Marathi Mission’s field with New 
England, we find that it has three quarters of New 
England’s population within one quarter of its area. 

The great famine of 1876-1878 swept through the 
southern part of this field, and in 1896-1897 not only 
did famine carry off many victims, but the terrific 
bubonic plague ravaged Bombay and Poona, and for 
a time broke up much of the mission’s work in Bombay. 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. 15 


But the clear note of faith uttered by the missionaries, 
in the midst of it all, rings true to the tones that have 
been sounded through the years from the heroic 
founders of 1813. Said one: ‘* The deserted streets, 
the funeral dirge, the red rings on the houses, signs 
of death, the smell of disinfectants, the fumes of 
sulphur, remind us at every step that death is amongst 
us. But Christian hearts are not disturbed with fear, 
for the living God, in whose hands we are, is kind 
and loving beyond all our conception; . . . and the 
prayers of God’s people seem like a protecting wall 
around us.” 


16 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


CHAPTER IV. 
THE CEYLON MISSION. 


In 1813 Samuel Newell had written to the Pruden- 
dential Committee from Jaffna, the northern province 
of Ceylon, saying, ‘‘ Perhaps no portion of the heathen 
world possesses so many advantages for spreading the 
gospel.” His voice was heeded, and on the twenty- 
first of June, 1815, James Richards, Edward Warren, 
Benjamin C. Meigs, Horatio Bardwell, and Daniel 
Poor were ordained in the Presbyterian church at 
Newburyport, and with their wives (excepting Warren, 
who was unmarried) were constituted the second mis- 
sion of the Board, to work in Jaffna. Mr. and Mrs. 
Bardwell were transferred to the Marathi Mission after 
reaching Colombo, but the others, seven in all, reached 
their destination and opened the new mission in Octo- 
ber, 1816. 

Jaffna was settled by a colony of Tamils about 200 
B.c. It was conquered by the Portuguese in the six- 
teenth century, by the Dutch in the seventeenth, and 
by the English in the eighteenth. The Portuguese 
forced the whole population to become Roman Catholics, 
and built churches spacious enough to accommodate 
them; the Dutch expelled the priests, forced all to 
become Protestants, put a school in each church, and 
enforced the attendance of the children. In 1802, 
when the British took possession, the Protestant popu- 
lation (and that was almost tbe entire population) 
numbered 136,000; but by 1806 the Protestant religion 
had become extinct, and heathenism and Roman 
Catholicism had been revived. 


——- 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. Alt 


A year from the time of their arrival Mr. Poor was 
preaching in Tamil at Tillipally, and Mr. Meigs at 
Batticotta. In the mean time Mr. Warren had left, 
never to return. But in 1819 the mission was rein- 
forced by the arrival of Levi Spaulding, Miron Win- 
slow, Henry Woodward, and Dr. John Seudder, with 
their wives ; a remarkable group of names, indissolubly 
associated with the missionary history of India as well 
as Ceylon: Spaulding by his service on that one field 
of fifty-three years, and by his excellent English- 
Tamil Dictionary ; Winslow by his scholarly work on 
Bible translation and his standard Tamil Dictionary ; 
Woodward by his becoming the instrument for the 
establishment of the Madura Mission; and Scudder by 
his preéminence as the father of the five Scudders 
that founded the Arcot Mission, and the head of a line 
extending to the third generation that have always 
furnished a strong element in that mission. And it 
was well that they came so early, for in 1820 a new 
governor was appointed and the mission forbidden to 
add any to their number. They were even required to 
send away Garrett, who had come to take charge of 
the printing establishment. This prohibition contin- 
ued until 1832, and was one of the reasons for 
the establishment of the Madura Mission two years 
later. 

Daniel Poor started schools at the very beginning of 
the mission and soon had free schools in the villages, 
under heathen masters, and a boarding school for 
boys at Tillipally. And these early efforts gave to 
this mission a prominence in education which it has 
always maintained. The missionaries had not been 
there seven years before they had projected a college 


18 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


that should have a course of study covering six years. 
Subscriptions were obtained in India, but the govern- 
ment of Ceylon declared that such an institution should 
be under teachers sent from Great Britain, and quashed 
the whole movement. The funds obtained were used 
for a high school, called the Batticotta Seminary. 

A great obstacle to girls’ schools was the fact that 
only dancing girls were allowed to learn, and they 
received instruction that they might sing the dissolute 
songs of idol worship. In 1816 Meigs could only hear 
of three respectable females in Jaffna that could read 
and write. But eight years from that time the Oodoo- 
ville Female Boarding School was established. It 
was born in a revival year, and has continued to this 
day; and with its beautiful white building of coral 
stone, and high standard of Christian training, holds a 
forexaost place among the Christian agencies of Ceylon. 
Siarted by Mr. and Mrs. Winslow, it soon came under 
the care of Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding. In 1840 there 
came to assist Mrs. Spaulding in the school Miss Eliza 
Agnew, who devoted her long life of service to that 
one work, without ever even visiting her native land. 
When the jubilee of the school was celebrated in 1874, 
its graduates passed the following among other resolu- 
tions: ‘* We, the educated women of Jaffna, being 
deeply sensible of the benefits we have derived from 
the labors of Protestant missionaries, and feeling 
special gratitude to our much beloved and venerated 
instructors, Dr. and Mrs. Spaulding, who have with 
parental love and care spent more than half a century 
in self-denying labors for our good and the good of 
our people, and to our highly esteemed teacher, Miss 
E. Agnew, who for a third of a century has been 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. 19 


untiring in her efforts to promote female education, 
desire to express in some definite and permanent form 
our respect and affection for them, and our gratitude 
for their labors, and desire at the same time to perpet- 
uate their memory. With this object in view we 
therefore Resolve, That we will raise a fund, to be 
called the Spaulding and Agnew Fund, the interest of 
which shall be placed at their disposal while they live, 
and afterwards shall be used for the education of 
girls needing aid in the Oodooville Female Boarding 
School.” 

All the schools of the mission were Christian be- 
cause they were conducted on Christian principles 
and taught the Bible. But they soon had an addi- 
tional title to the name. A series of four revivals 
began in 1824. It commenced among the boys at 
Tillipally, then spread to the schoolmasters in Oo- 
dooville, then appeared among the boys in Manepy, 
Panditeripo, and Batticotta. In Panditeripo one night 
there were more than thirty praying and weeping in 
a small garden, crying out, ‘‘ What shall I do to be 
saved?” ‘*Lord, send thy Spirit.” Forty-one of 
these converts were received to the church in January, 
1825. In October of the same year came a second 
revival, especially in Batticotta ; and in 1830 another, 
chiefly in the boarding schools of Tillipally and Oo- 
dooville. The fourth took place in 1834 in Batticotta 
and Oodooville. Each revival brought many into the 
church, the last one sixty-seven. 

In 1834 the Ceylon Mission took a step which 
proved to be of much consequence in the history of 
the Board. It was the sending of Levi Spaulding to 
the continent to find a suitable location for a new 


20 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


mission, and through his influence locating the new 
mission at Madura. 

The commercial distress of 1837 caused the Pru- 
dential Committee to reduce the appropriations to all 
their missions, and the results were especially dis- 
astrous in Jaffna. One hundred and_ seventy-one 
schools were broken up, and five thousand children 
dismissed.. The general disaster that befell the mis- 
sion in all its departments startled the committee and 
home churches into restoring the appropriations, and 
the government of Ceylon gave a grant of two thou- 
sand dollars. But the work destroyed could not be 
replaced for many years. 

The year 1843 brought sad revelations of evil con- 
duct on the part of young men in Batticotta Seminary, 
such as attendance on heathen dances, lying and 
deception, and unnatural vice; and it was considered 
necessary to dismiss certain teachers, all of one class, 
and sixty-one from other classes. In 1855 this insti- 
tution was changed into a theological and training 
institution, and instruction in English was dropped. 
The result was the establishment by the natives two 
years after of an English High School. In 1867, the 
native Christians moved with reference to a Christian 
College, and that was commenced July 1, 1872. The 
American missionaries and an equal number of native 
gentlemen were to be trustees, and the American Board 
was to furnish the principal. Rev. E. P. Hastings 
was the first to occupy that position. The mission had 
waited nearly half a century for that college. 

The training school was moved to Tillipally and 
developed into an industrial institution. 

The first church of the mission was organized at 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. 21 


Batticotta. The first pastor ordained was installed in 
1855 over a church that had been organized in Kara- 
dive. A second pastor was ordained in 1858 at 
Chavagacherry. In 1867 the old Batticotta church 
resolved ‘‘not only to have a pastor, but to be self- 
governed, self-supported, and independent of the mis- 
sion in everything except Christian counsel.” Since 
then the work of organizing churches and installing 
pastors over them has gone forward with vigor and 
success, and a considerable number of the churches 
have become self-supporting. Some of these churches 
are occupying edifices left by the Dutch. 

The work of the press began in 1834 and was of 
great value. In 1841 the Morning Star, a semi- 
monthly paper, was commenced. Subsequently the 
press and paper were sold to native Christians. 

The medical work of the mission has been main- 
tained on a par with the other departments. 

Revival seasons have not ceased. They have re- 
freshed the churches and schools at intervals. Jaffna 
College ‘‘is the centre of the student field of North 
Ceylon.” ‘‘ Here the first College Association in the 
mission field was planted,” and ‘‘ no, association in 
America or Britain is doing a better, all-round work or 
a deeper work.” Mr. John R. Mott, of the World's 
Student Christian Federation, held a conference at the 
college in December, 1895, and reported that ‘‘ eighteen 
young men, who had ceased to follow Christ, returned 
to him,” ‘‘ eleven others accepted Christ for the first 
time, a number of whom were Hindus,” ‘‘ ten dedi- 
cated their lives to work among their own people” ; 
and, after the conference, the delegates held a meeting 
in the college ‘‘of several hours’ duration, in which 


22. HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


four of their Hindu fellow-students were led to 
renounce their idolatry and superstition, and accept 
Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour.” 

It is worthy of note that this mission, though one 
of the smaller missions of the Board, has the largest 
number of pupils in its schools, and that these schools 
have always been the main field for its revivals. It 
furnished the first missionaries to open the Madura, 
Madras, and Arcot missions, the first native agents 
for the Madura Mission, and the first native instructor 
in Pasumalai Seminary. In more recent times it has 
sent many faithful and efficient young men to various 
missionary fields in India. 

The eighteen churches of the mission received, on 
confession of their faith in 1896, 115 new members, a 
net gain for the year of 81; and they raised a sum of 
nearly 9,000 rupees. Their field contains 166,000 
people, a population somewhat greater than that of 
New Mexico or Montana. 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. 23 


CHAPTER YV. 


THE MADURA MISSION. 


Tue ancient Pandyan Kingdom of Madura sent two 
embassies to Rome in the time of Augustus, the 
second of which is mentioned by Strabo. And Ptol- 
emy’s map includes it. ‘The Tamil language, which 
has always been the vernacular of this region, supplied 
to our Hebrew Bible the words for peacock, aloes, and 
almug trees. It was among the descendants of this 
people that the Ceylon Mission commenced its new 
work in 1834. 

The census: of the Madras Presidency for 1891 
shows that the native population is divided into 33 
Musalman and 1,470 Hindu castes. Of this large 
number only 25 contain each more than 100,000 people, 
and 24 of those are Hindu. Those in the Madura 
district number 8 Musalman and 251 Hindu castes. 
Two Musalman and 32 Hindu castes have each more 
than 10,000 people, and 2 of the latter have each more 
than 200,000. ‘The castes are divided into the follow- 
ing five classes : — 

I. AcricutruraL. There are in Madura fifty-nine of 
these, in five groups, namely, military and dominant, 
cultivators, field laborers, cattle breeders, and forest 
and hill tribes. This class outnumbers all the other 
four. 

Il. ProresstonaLt. These number ninety-six, and 
are grouped as priests, devotees, temple servants, 
writers, musicians, and ballad reciters, dancers and 
singers, and actors and mimes. Here the priests are 


24 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


by far the most numerous, and are mostly Brahmans. 
The group of dancers and singers is made up chiefly 
of professional prostitutes, the dancing girls of the 
temples. 

III. Commerciat. Eighteen castes of traders and 
one of carriers make up this class. 

IV. Artisan AND VinLaAGE Menrat. This large 
class of sixty-one castes contains twenty-two groups, 
namely, goldsmiths, artisans, barbers, blacksmiths, 
carpenters with masons and turners, brass and copper 
smiths, tailors, perfumers and betel leaf sellers, flower 
sellers, weavers with calenderers and dyers, washer- 
men, shepherds with wool weavers, oil pressers, pot- 
ters, glass workers with bangle makers, salt workers, 
lime burners, fishermen with boatmen, and palki 
bearers, distillers with toddy drawers, leather workers, 
village watchmen, and scavengers. 

V. Vacrant, Minor ARTISANS AND PERFORMERS. 
Seven groups include the twenty-five castes in this 
class. They are earth workers, knife grinders, mat 
and basket makers with cane splitters, hunters with 
fowlers, beggars, tumblers with acrobats, and jugglers 
with snake charmers and animal exhibitors. Though 
the hunters are the largest group, it is suggestive that 
the beggars number more than twenty thousand. 

The castes themselves are divided into innumerable 
sub-castes, and it is necessary to appreciate this 
multiplicity to understand the environment of mis- 
sionary work in India, 

More than nine tenths of the people live in villages. 
The city of Madura is the only town in the Madura 
district of more than 20,000 people, and it contains 
87,000. The district covers 8,608 square miles, and 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. 25 


in 1891 had a population of 2,608,000. It is there- 
fore larger than the State of Massachusetts, and has 
more people in it. Not more than five States of the 
Union are more populous than the Madura district, 
and only five have a smaller area. 

When the Ceylon Mission decided to extend their 
work to this district, Henry Woodward was on the 
Nilgiri Mountains for his health. As the governor of 
Madras was there at that time, Woodward made appli- 
cation May 19, 1834, and soon received the necessary 
permission. Mr. and Mrs. Todd and Mr. Hoisington 
were then sent from Jaffna, with three native helpers, 
and reached Madura July 31. The following Sunday 
they united in observing the Lord’s Supper in a native 
house. ‘The greatness of the field so impressed them 
that they forthwith wrote to the Prudential Committee 
for twenty-seven more missionaries. ‘They also started 
three schools for boys and one for girls. 

In September, 1835, Mrs. Todd died on her way to 
Jaffna, and her bereaved husband went on to that 
place. Mr. and Mrs. Eckard had arrived in February, 
as Mr. Hoisington returned to Jaffna. Mr. Eckard 
was not only left without other missionaries, but was 
entirely deserted by the native helpers. No wonder 
that he appealed to Daniel Poor to come over from 
Jaffna, at least for a time. Poor responded to the 
eall, and in October, 1835, had come to Eckard’s help 
with A. C. Hall and J. J. Lawrence and their wives. 
For six years he stayed and worked most indefati- 
gably in starting schools similar to those in Jaffna. 
‘¢' The Madura Mission was but a bud nipped off from 
the Jaffna stock and set to grow in Madura soil; and, 
like buds under such circumstances, it was for a time, 


26 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


so far as surroundings would allow, very much a repro- 
duction of the original.” 

The first church was organized in Madura in 1836, 
and the second in Dindigul in 1837. The first convert 
to be received to the church was a high-caste servant 
of Mr. Todd’s, and he was received just three years 
after the commencement of the mission. This was 
the year of commercial disaster at home, and famine 
and cholera in the field, but the Madras government 
made the mission a grant of 3,000 rupees and saved 
them from serious reduction. This year brought also 
a reinforcement of seven more missionaries, with their 
wives, in answer to the call for twenty-seven. Of 
that party Rev. William Tracy continued in the mis- 
sion for forty years, became the founder of Pasumalai 
Seminary and College, and left a son in the mission to 
continue his name and influence. 

In 1845 the seminary, which Tracy had started in 
Tirumangalam three years before, was moved to its 
new buildings at Pasumalai, three miles from Madura. 
The substantial East Church building in Madura was 
also finished at this time. ‘The mission had worked 
eleven years and gathered 120 communicants and 
1,000 adherents, or nominal Christians. In the five 
years between 1844 and 1848, eight new missionaries 
with their wives were added to the force; and these 
included Horace §. Taylor, James Herrick, John 
Rendall, J. E. Chandler, and others, who labored 
shoulder to shoulder for more than a generation, and 
gave to the mission’s policy a degree of unanimity 
and stability that has been a source of power even 
to the present time. 

A fiery trial came upon the mission in July, 1847, 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. 27 


when it was found that the caste spirit was working 
great mischief among the Christians, and the follow- 
ing resolution was passed: ‘‘ That the mission regards 
caste as an essential part of heathenism; and its full 
and practical renunciation, after proper instruction, 
as essential to satisfactory evidence of piety; and 
that renunciation of caste implies at least a readiness 
to eat, under proper circumstances, with any Christians 
of any caste; and that we will not hereafter receive 
into our service as a catechist any one who does not 
give satisfactory evidence of having renounced caste.” 
Test measures were applied with the result that the 
seminary was almost entirely disbanded and _thirty- 
eight native assistants and thirty-four others were sus- 
pended from church membership. But good effects 
followed. ‘The seminary was filled again, and in two 
years the news of revival interest among the Nes- 
torians in Persia wrought a spiritual awakening here. 

The first village church was organized at this time, 
and the visit of the Deputation in 1855 resulted, as in 
Abmednagar and Jaffna, in the ordination and instal- 
lation of the first native pastor. And within five 
years from that date seven native pastors had been 
ordained and twenty-seven churches organized. 

In 1867 three ladies, in as many different stations, 
began systematic work for Hindu women in their 
homes, and two years thereafter the first Bible-women 
were appointed. This work has developed all over 
the mission, and especially in Madura City, where for 
many years it was carried on by Mrs. Capron. There 
is now a school in successful operation for the training 
of such workers. 

This district was in the midst of the oreat famine 


28 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


of 1876-1878, when five and a quarter millions of 
people perished, notwithstanding an expenditure on 
relief works by the government of fifty-five millions 
of dollars, and the distribution of large sums from 
private sources. ‘The work of the missionaries in this 
distribution was productive of great good. They gave 
the people an object lesson in Christian charity and 
saved many lives. Among those saved were a band 
of orphans of many castes that have grown up to be 
most useful laborers in the Lord’s vineyard. They 
are to be found in different parts of the mission as 
cultivators, clerks, schoolmasters, schoolmistresses, 
Bible-women, and preachers; and two of them are 
pastors, their wives being also from the same orphan 
band. This effort was officially recognized in the fol- 
lowing government order : — 

‘¢ In consideration of the exertions of the American 
Mission in Madura during the famine, and the expense 
they have incurred in the cases of destitute children, 
the Governor in Council is pleased to sanction a grant- 
in-aid of rupees 1,200 to the Pulney Orphanage, and 
further sanctions the transfer to the Mission of such 
quantities of the Vengai wood in the Pulney Depot, 
for the building, as the Collector may deem to be 
reasonable.” 

From 1837, when Dr. Steele reached the mission, to 
the present time a succession of skilful and earnest 
physicians have carried on a noble medical work. 
This has developed into three hospitals, one being for 
women and children. The latest and finest hospital 
building has. been erected with funds contributed hy 
wealthy Hindu gentlemen. Four large sums were 
given by them out of the funds of their idol temples. 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. 29 


The seminary at Pasumalai has grown into a group 
of institutions, including a theological school, a college, 
and a normal school; and the other schools have kept 
pace with the growth of the Christian community. 

Madura City is unique in having within a radius of 
three miles so many departments of missionary work, 
all under one mission ; and they are all large and suc- 
cessful. There are four churches all provided with 
pastors; also work for women and girls, Christian, 
Hindu, and Musalman, carried on by thirty-five 
Bible-women, and in connection with seven schools for 
girls and young women of all grades; the same for 
boys and young men, from the primary schools to the 
college and theological seminary; the medical work, 
and many forms of evangelistic effort. 

In the whole mission in 1896 there was a Christian 
community of 15,475 souls, of whom 4,595 were com- 
municants. These were gathered into 38 churches, 
with 23 pastors. 5,910 pupils were under Christian 
instruction, and a band of 535 male and female agents 
were codperating with the missionaries in the work of 
more than 300 congregations and nearly 200 schools 
of all grades. 

Two important jubilee celebrations show the prog- 
ress of the mission at different stages. The first 
occurred in Madura in 1884, being that of the whole 
mission. For three days, in February of that year, a 
temporary pavilion, erected to seat 2,000 people, was 
filled, and great enthusiasm was elicited. When 
1,500 Christians with banners and music marched in 
procession through the principal streets of the city to 
each of the three churches, the populace stared in 
open-mouthed wonder. And when a thousand adults 


30 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


sat together at the Lord’s Supper, the Christians 
themselves felt with peculiar force the strength of 
their union with each other and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Grateful resolutions, recognizing their indebtedness 
to the American Board, were followed by a thank- 
offering of five thousand rupees for Pasumalai Semi- 
nary. A movement was also started for evangelistic 
effort on the part of the natives, and a number of 
evangelists were appointed in different stations by 
branch societies under the general Native Evangelical 
Society. 

The second jubilee was that of the Institution at 
Pasumalai. ‘This was held in that place in September, 
1892, to celebrate its origin in Tirumangalam in 1842, 
and again in 1895, to celebrate its establishment in 
Pasumalai three years later. Between these two cele- 
brations many men and women connected with the 
mission contributed each a month’s salary, and these, 
with other gifts, secured an endowment fund of sixteen 
thousand rupees. About two thousand students had 
studied in its various departments, at a total cost of 
two hundred thousand rupees, about thirty dollars for 
each student. The day given up to each celebration 
was full of inspiration, as the crowds of former students 
and friends, Hindu and Christian, European and 
native, attested their joy and satisfaction at the splen- 
did history and growth during the past and grand 
opportunities for the present and future. The number 
of teachers in 1896 was twenty-two, and students 
three hundred and fifty-three. 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. dL 


CHAPTER VI. 
OTHER MISSIONS. 


Two other missions, established by the Board and 
continued for a time, deserve notice. 

The Madras Mission, like that of Madura, was 
started by the Ceylon Mission and about the same 
time, namely, 1836. In that year Miron Winslow 
and Dr. John Scudder with their wives were trans- 
ferred from Jaffna to Madras for the purpose of print- 
ing and publishing the Bible and other books for the 
benefit of the Tamil race. This they did most success- 
fully, while Scudder was especially active in preaching 
and distributing books and tracts. Winslow con- 
ducted a Tamil magazine and spent much time ona 
revision of the Tamil Bible. His dictionary has never 
been superseded. Im all, eight men with their wives 
were connected with this mission, but Winslow out- 
lived all, except Mrs. Winslow and Mr. and Mrs. Hunt, 
and died October 22, 1864. Mr. Phineas Hunt was a 
printer, who joined the mission in 1840. He received 
high encomiums from the Madras Bible Society, among 
others, for the important service he rendered to the 
circulation of the Scriptures through his ‘‘ improved 
typography ” and ‘ clear, correct, and beautiful edi- 
tions of the Tamil Bible.” John Scudder, m.p., died 
in 1855. Samuel Hutchings from Ceylon, Ferdinand 
Ward from Madura, and John W. Dulles and Isaac 
N. Hurd from the United States, had come and gone, 
each after a short period of service. Henry M. 
Scudder, the first missionary son to enter the service 


32 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


of the Board, had labored seven years and then gone 
to found a new mission. And when Winslow died, 
Mr. and Mrs. Hunt were left alone, and their health 
was declining, so the mission was discontinued with 
the feeling that its work had been accomplished. 

The General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church 
had supported the Board from 1832. In 1851 their 
contributions were given for a new mission in the 
Arcot district, and for six years the Arcot Mission was 
conducted in that way, and in 1857 amicably transferred 
to the Reformed Church. Henry M. Scudder and his 
wife were transferred from Madras in 1851, and Wil- 
liam W. Scudder from Jaffpa in 1853. Three more 
brothers, Joseph, Ezekiel, and Jared, with their wives, 
and Miss Louisa Scudder came out from the United 
States. Before the termination of their connection 
with the Board this family of missionaries had done a 
great amount of preaching and other work, and had 
organized five churebes in their field; and their sub- 
sequent growth and prosperity are a source of increas- 
ing joy and satisfaction to all who are interested in 
the spread of the kingdom of God. 

In 1896 the Arcot Mission had 24 churches with 11 
native pastors and 2,092 members in a Christian com- 
munity of 7,945. 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. 33 


CHAPTER VII. 
PRESENT CONDITIONS. 


In all India there are 50,000,000 out-castes, or 
Panchamas; and each mission has its share of them 
within its field and has also won its converts from 
them. And observing Hindus themselves have con- 
fessed that their only hope is outside of Hinduism. A 
Brahman gentleman, who was in 1893 Inspector Gen- 
eral of Registration in Madras, in his official ‘* Memo- 
randum on the Progress of the Madras Presidency 
during the last forty years of British Administration,” 
plainly declares: ‘* Further amelioration of the condi- 
tion of this class must be the outcome of educational 
agencies employed in connection with missionary enter- 
prise; and indeed, the best thing that can happen to 
them is conversion to either the Christian or the 
Muhammadan religion, for there is no hope for them 
within the pale of Hinduism, the ordinances of which 
originated in a state of things in which it was neces- 
sary for a small minority of colonists of a superior 
race, with a view to prevent their civilization from 
becoming swamped by the surrounding barbarism, to 
construct ‘ moral barriers’ which would absolutely pre- 
vent fusion of races.” ; 

On the other hand, a reaction has set in all over the 
land against Christianity and in favor of Hinduism. 
This first appeared in the south after the great famine 
of 1876-1878. The people had received but little help 
from their temples and religious leaders, and many 
had forsaken their gods; but when prosperity re- 


34 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


turned they were diligently taught that their only 
safety for the future consisted in a return to the wor- 
ship of their forsaken gods. A Hindu propagandism 
was instituted by means of preachers and tracts, and ~ 
the multitudes turned not only to their customary 
shrines, but even to others that had been neglected for 
generations. Kyen hook-swinging was revived under 
this impulse. 

In the north, political movements, in which the 
educated classes agitated for a more active participa- 
tion in the administration of government, connected 
themselves with the support of the ancient religion, 
and thus aroused a revival of interest among the 
multitudes. These political influences have now 
spread all over the land. 

This zeal has been further promoted by exaggerated 
reports of wonderful successes won by certain Hindus 
in England and America, whose labors, the people are 
told by their leaders, have borne ‘‘ fruit in the universal 
rejection of the superficial gloss of the West for the 
deep and sound philosophy of the East.” 

Another cause for this revival of Hinduism and 
extreme sensitiveness to all comparison with Christian- 
ity is undoubtedly their conviction of the growth and 
increasing power of the religion of Christ. ‘* What 
stronger proof of this conviction do we need than the 
efforts of all enlightened Hindus to purify their reli- 
gion from the gross and shocking immoralities and the 
fearfully low moral conception that deform and de- 
grade it?” ‘+ And apparently the zeal for reform arises 
not so much from a desire for a higher morality, as from 
a desire to preserve and defend Hinduism.” ‘*‘ The 
necessity of defending themselves against Christianity 


INDIA AND CEYLON MISSIONS. 30 


is the motive power of the reformation.” These words 
from the Arcot Mission’s report express the general 
sentiment of India missionaries. 

What then is it necessary for the Lord’s people to do 
but to generously support their missions and vigor- 
ously press on with the work and obey their divine 
Leader as he is commanding them to ‘* make disciples 
of all the nations” ? 

Protestant missions in India have had their share 
of afflictions, necessities, distresses, tumults, labors, 
watchings, fastings, journeyings often, perils of rivers, 
perils of robbers, perils in the city, perils in the wilder- 
ness. But they have also witnessed great triumphs, 
and are slowly but surely introducing a leaven that 
will leaven the whole mass of India’s 288,000,000. 
They have at work 1,000 foreign and Eurasian 
preachers, another 1,000 lady workers, 5,000 native 
Christian preachers, and 10,000 native teachers. Half 
a million children are under Christian instruction and 
three fourths of a million souls have been gathered 
into the Christian fold. 

This is but a beginning, but when ‘the little one 
shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong 
nation,” then India will have become Immanuel’s land, 
and ** the Lord will hasten it in its time.” 


TRANSLATION OF TAMIL LYRIC. 
(Written by Rey. A. Savarimuttu, Madura Mission.) 


Jesus’ name is sweeter far 

Than the sweetest nectars are. 
Hast’ning come with zeal aflame ; 
Seek, O sacred Church, his name. 


In the world he lived and loved; 
Loss and ruin he removed ; 
Severed all sin’s bitterness, 
Put afar from us its curse. 


Sinners lost he came to save, 
For their life his life he gave. 
Right and gracious are his ways; 
Praise him, then, O daily praise. 


Wherefore all this toil and pain 
Friends and parents to retain? 
Jesus is the friend divine, 
Boundless grace in him doth shine. 


Soon this world shall pass from view, 
Vanish like the morning dew ; 

Then, my soul, at Jesus’ feet 

Thou shalt stand with trust complete. 


erat 
THORITIES CONSULTED ON INDIAN MISSTONS. 
‘History of Christianity in India, by Rev. James Hough, 
hee ‘5 vols., London, 1839-1860. 

History of the Missions of the American Board of Commis- 


sioners for Foreign Missions in India, by Rufus Ander- 
: On, ‘D. cave LL.D., RM i 1874. 


eign puesions: by Joseph Tracy, 2d Salon: Gaston: 
J1842; 3: 


A Primer of Riedern Missions, by Richard Lovett. The Re- 
-ligious Tract Society, London, 1896. 


story of Christianity in India; with its Prospects. A 
é Ge eo Christian an yaanly Society, Madras, 1895. 


The Census of natn, 1891, vols. 13, 14, and 15, folio, 


Indian Prinahe, by W. Ww. Hunter, ©.8.I., C.1.E., LL.D., 
8vo, London, 1886. 


N [emorial Volume of the American Board of Commission- 


ne 


ers for Foreign Missions, 5th edition, 8vo, Boston, 1862. 
bilee Volume of the American Madura Mission, 16mo, 


